Apple is planning to launch sales of pre-made ringtones, possibly as early as next week, according to a new report. Citing unnamed music industry executives, Cnet reports that the new ringtones are meant as a convenience, as iPhone users can already create their own ringtones through iTunes. The report also states that the new offerings will be announced at next week’s Apple event, if managers can get the files ready in time. iLounge will be…

Apple has sent out invitations to select members of the media inviting them to a special event on September 9th. Featuring a large iPod silhouette graphic at the top sporting the phrase “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” the invite states that the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, CA, and that it will begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple is widely expected to announce its…

Citing sources from Apple Authorized Resellers, Ars Technica reports that the entire current lineup of iPods has been discontinued. Stock of the current screened iPods, announced and released last September, is dwindling, with no more expected to come in; the fate of the third-generation iPod shuffle, released earlier this year, is unclear. Apple is reportedly planning a special event for early September—possibly as soon as Sept. 9—to…

European music subscription and download service Spotify has received approval from Apple for its iPhone application after a month-long delay, paidContent UK reports. The app lets users stream music from the Spotify service, access and edit saved playlists, save playlists for offline listening, and search for new music. It also offers album artwork and detailed information for each song. The company submitted the application to Apple in late July,…

Apple is forcing developers to update, or otherwise pulling, applications offering a “Free Memory” function in an apparent attempt to ban the feature from the App Store. The “Free Memory” feature is most often a button found in iPhone and iPod touch activity monitoring programs such as Bjango’s iStat, allowing users to free up RAM that remains marked for use by closed programs. According to Bjango, iStat’s Free Memory…

Apple recently began running a new television ad for the iPhone 3GS. Entitled “Avid,” the commercial focuses on three applications—Golfshot: Golf GPS, MLB.com At Bat 2009, and TouchSports Tennis ‘09—for the avid golf golfer, baseball fan, and tennis player. Like most recent iPhone commercials, the ad features the apps running on an iPhone in front of a white background. The new advertisement is now available for view…

BTG International, a technology company based in Pennsylvania, has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission alleging that Apple and a host of other companies unlawfully import and sell products containing patent infringing MLC flash memory chips, as well as the chips themselves. The complaint explains that BTG’s patents “relate to methods and apparatuses for programming and reading Flash memory cells that store more than a…

Apple has released Software Version 1.04 for the fourth-generation iPod nano. According to Apple’s release notes, the update fixes an issue which resulted in some incorrect daylight savings date settings, now correctly displays Thai song information tags when syncing in disk mode, and includes other minor bug fixes. Software Version 1.0.4 for the fourth-generation iPod nano is available now through the Update feature in iTunes.
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